Washington Wizards

Here is our daily look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT). We’re trying out a bullet-point format to help the look and feel, tell us what you think of it. • Conan O’Brien got a pair…

What you missed while getting emails from your dead friend…. Bulls 85, Magic 59: Chicago is now 10-4 this season when Derrick Rose sits and now have beaten the Heat and Magic without him in the last week. Credit where credit is due — they have been playing the best basketball in the NBA for…

In a tight Western Conference the Denver Nuggets are only a game and a half out of the nine seed — and missing the playoffs entirely — and this is not going to help their cause. Danilo Gallinari — the leading scorer on the Nuggets with 15.6 points per game — broke the thumb on…

Ronny Turiaf headed west on the trade deadline — well, that’s not accurate, his contract headed West. His contract followed JaVale McGee from Washington to Denver (with Nene headed the other direction) but the Nuggets had no intention of keeping him and he is being waived and bought out as we speak. He will be…

Trade deadline moves aren’t changing the top of the rankings much, but we will see Portland and some other teams fall in the coming weeks. And we don’t know what the Nets are thinking either, so don’t ask. 1. Bulls (37-10, last week ranked number 1). They beat the Heat without Derrick Rose in the…

What you missed while thinking a new study proves your children are brilliant…. Heat 91, Magic 81: Everybody talks about the big man the Heat could use. We often underestimate Chris Bosh — he had 23 points on 13 shots. Dwyane Wade owned the fourth quarter with 14 of his 31 coming then, when the…

Since you spent your Sunday watching the state of Ohio dominate college basketball (four of the Sweet 16) I wanted to bring you a couple of the dunks you missed from the NBA. But I couldn’t decide between Donte Green’s reverse for the Kings (above) or Jeremy Pargo making a Kevin Seraphin poster. So, we’re…

It’s a cold business with little room for sentimentality. Derek Fisher was part of the problem for the Lakers at the point guard spot. If the Lakers were going to have any shot at a ring they needed an upgrade — Ramon Sessions is an upgrade. A big upgrade. Steve Blake is a solid backup.…

We’re thee days past the trade deadline. Some players have already landed and played a game with their new teams, some haven’t even arrived in their new destinations (does Hasheem Thabeet really have that busy of a calendar?). But we’re starting to recover from the shock of a still-nuts-if-quieter-than-last-year deadline that saw two coaches let go…

So many trades are made for singular reasons. A team will need to change its identity. A relationship between a player and a coach will become toxic. A player will be leaving in free agency. But there are often times trades that “make sense, ” as the popular phraseology goes, because they’re good for multiple…

Between now and June — or whenever the Knicks and Wizards get around to hiring their coaches for next season — we are going to get a lot of “John Calipari is leaving Kentucky” stories. He’s already spent considerable time before the first round of the NCAA Tournament trying to distance himself from the Knicks…

Here is our daily look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT). Was Dwyane Wade mocking Dwight Howard’s loyalty to the Magic? Kind of looks that way to me. Rudy Gay has cleared the league concussion protocols…

The end to one of the unusual courtship dances in a while could be coming to an end. Wilson Chandler was a restricted free agent upon return from his lockout-inspired trip to play in China. He wanted either a long-term deal or a very short one that put him in the free agent market this…

What you missed while watching your NCAA bracket go up in flames…. Suns 91, Clippers 87: Phoenix was on the second night of a back-to-back-to-back so coach Alvin Gentry decided to rest Grant Hill and Steve Nash — and the Suns still rallied from 12 back in the fourth quarter to win. The Suns have…

As you survey the NBA landscape in the aftermath of the storm that is always the NBA trade deadline, and a couple things leap out: First, the title contenders did not change — and they all stood pat. In the East, the path to the finals goes through Miami and Chicago and nobody really moved…

It was a trade nobody expected and dropped on everyone right before the trade deadline — the Wizards got Nene, the Clippers got Nick Young and the Nuggets got JaVale McGee (and there were other parts). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo and Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated joined my man Russ Thaler on NBC’s SportsTalk to…

This year’s Portland Trail Blazers campaign, to this point, has gone as badly as possible. Just before the NBA’s trade deadline passed at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, the team began the process of doing something about it. A flurry of activity went down in Portland today, and much of it set the team up…

Dwight Howard didn’t get traded and neither did any of Boston’s big three. But there were plenty of moves at the deadline. Here are our grades for each team. Atlanta Hawks: They wanted to move one player to get themselves under the luxury tax line (they are $440,000 over it). They couldn’t do it. So…

When the lockout ended, Nene was maybe the most coveted free agent out there — a true big man who is a borderline All-Star theoretically entering his prime. Denver was able to keep him with a five-year, $67 million contract. However, he has spent a chunk of this season injured and not putting up his…

Here it is — the one place where all the NBA’s trade deadline news and rumors will be. With our thoughts on everything. This post will be constantly updated throughout the day as the newest information becomes available. Just hit refresh and you will know the latest. The trade deadline is 3 p.m. Eastern (all…

Here is our daily look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT). Note: For the latest in trade deadline news, click on over to our deadline trade news and rumor tracker. Do you think Tracy McGrady is…

Here is our daily look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT). John Calipari to coach the Wizards after Kentucky loses in the NCAA Tournament finals? Let’s just say it is out there and the guy who…

What you missed while getting Michael Jordan’s likeness shaved into your hair… Celtics 94, Clippers 85: The Celtics sucked all the fun out of Lob City, and it worked for them in our game of the night. Timberwolves 127, Suns 124: It was a shootout in the desert, and our own Brett Pollakoff was there.…

It’s pretty easy to picture the Clippers as a serious threat to the Thunder in the West if they added Ray Allen — the Celtics sharp shooter who takes on the Clippers Monday night. The Clippers have struggled with production from the two guard spot since Chauncey Billups went down with an Achilles tendon injury.…

The New York Knicks lost their fifth straight Sunday, falling 106-94 to the Philadelphia Sixers in a game where the Sixers largely toyed with the Knicks for the fourth quarter. It’s not a surprise, downing sub-.500 teams by double-digits is kind of what Philly does this season. That’s their bread and butter. But of course,…